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The story of how I finally confronted Earthbound is full of twists and turns, of happiness and heartbreak. In the end, I have worked together with fellow friends to make my community just a little more earthboundy. It started when I was eleven or so...

A long time ago, in my room down the hall, I was happily enjoying Banjo-Kazooie. I had a Nintendo 64 system hooked up to my 19 inch television with a discolored spot in one of the corners where I had been playing with magnets. I had received it as a birthday present. The look on my face when I saw it was priceless. My mom came in the room and asked me if I would like to go to the grocery store with her. I said yes, but only if I could get some candy. She agreed and I hopped in the car. When my mother goes to the grocery store, I often ran off and read video game magazines. I read about an upcoming game involving Nintendo characters beat the crap out of each other in an all-out free for all. I asked my mom if I could get the magazine. She said it would come out of my allowance. As we drove from stop to stop a read and reread the article. It intrigued me so I pleaded with my mom to take me to the local Blockbuster so I could rent the game. I groaned as she went to another fashion store and told her to hurry up. Eventually I got there and proceeded to lose the other half of my allowance. We returned home and ran straight for my room. I heard the familiar *CLUNK* as I popped it into the system. I turned on the TV, then the N64.

The game started, I remember wondering why that dog had eggs but my eager fingers pushed me through the beginning. A soft melody played over the TV and a large, white glove flew through the air to an open chest, it picked Mario up and plopped him down lifelessly onto a desk. He was there not more than a second when he began to shake and quiver. Mario jumped up and the whole world turned into a wonderful world of Mario-esque platforms. Soon many characters flew across the screen all doing separate things until in a blinding flash I was brought to a screeching halt and was at the main menu. It was calm, all too calm. I advanced to the one player menu and found myself at the character selection screen. I had never heard of Link, Samus, or Star Fox before. I choose Kirby, I had long since been a fan of him since the original for the Game Boy. The rest was a blur of kicks, beams swords, targets, and gloves. I awoke three months later, with almost every secret character. Just one more to go. I tried various combinations until I put the game on normal and brought my stock down to one. I didn’t know it could also be done a three. I won (as usual) and was challenged. I fought a boy. An average boy with purple pants and a red cap. His logo was the Earth. I had no clue who he was or where he was from. He wiped the floor with me. I flew through one-player and faced him again. This was the beginning of my Earthbound obsession.

I spent the next couple of years making everyone’s lives a torrent of Earthbound and my imagination. Every year in English class we had to make a poem book, I always wrote about Earthbound and did my best to drive it into everyone’s head. Many of my friends thought I was insane but most could deny me of awesomeness! I spent a lot of free time at SMN and have enjoyed the experience. Every chance I get, I suggest to a friend he should visit this site.

Despite my love for the game, I am yet to actually play it. After a few unpaid items on ebay and the fact I can not find it anywhere, I settled for the next best thing Mother 1+2. I used playasia.com and found it. It costed quite a bit. I had to resort to using change to pay off my dad so I could purchase it. I did not sleep for the next few days. It eventually came and I finally realized why Tomato’s job was so hard. The language barrier was a difficult one to overcome. It took me and my trusty Gameboy Advance about two and a half years to beat. I had a fun time and showed it off to all of my friends. I made a few mistakes like pulling it out in class and showing it off during football practice. It was worth the tacklings and the wading threw the unholy gibberish of my nightmares that makes up the Japanese language. I started to loan it out to some of my nerdier friends earlier and they have joined me in my Earthbound merriment. I am currently following in xfisjmg1’s footsteps and have started a few videos. I hope to put them on a website early next year.

A cartridge changed my life and I in turn have changed others. All of the hard work and staying up late at night while crying and drinking shampoo due to near insanity of the cursed language. I will make T-shirts, I will mar public property, I will dress up on Halloween, I will not care about them staring, and I shall never forget this part of my life that has done so much at times. I love Earthbound and I will do my best to make others love it, too. You heard me world, I said it. I LOVE EARTHBOUND!!!!